The day of giving thanks and feasting is nearly upon us. Thanksgiving Is Thursday, November 22 this year. That means that we have less than three weeks to plot, plan, prepare and produce a meal worthy of a Norman Rockwell painting. Sure, no problem, it’s a snap to pull off a plethora of various dishes, all of which have to be cooked at different temperatures, for different lengths of time while all looking and tasting fantastic. What’s that you say? Preparing Thanksgiving dinner can be a nightmare, rife with potential disasters and frustrations? Oh yes, it’s that too, I’ll admit.

When I first got married, we dutifully divided our time each year between my side of the family and my husband’s side, more than once eating two Thanksgiving meals in the same day to appease everyone. Let me just say there were antacids involved. We learned about each other’s family’s different Thanksgiving meal traditions like cranberry relish on my side, gelled cranberry sauce slid out of the can on his; rice stuffing on my side, bread stuffing on his; candied yams and steamed green beans on my side, marshmallow-topped yams and green bean onion-topped casserole on his. We vowed to come up with our own, new traditions when we had kids blending a little of what we both liked from my side and a little of what we liked from his side plus some new dishes we created on our own. It was great – in theory.

Our little plan of family bliss went out the window when I tried to cook my first Thanksgiving meals. The biggest disaster was when I misjudged how long it would take to defrost a turkey. We ended up giving the poor bird repeated hot water baths until it was thawed enough to finally put in the oven. We ate at 10pm that night. I was not off to a good start in the Thanksgiving Dinner department.

Over the next few years, and now with four children, there were other mishaps. Some out of my control but many were simply due to my lack of planning and willingness to accept help from others. I’ll be sharing those stories with you as the That’s IT Mommy blog participates in a special program with Walmart called “A Mishap Free Thanksgiving” intended to help us all share some laughs, commiserate over failures, pass on tips and tricks and basically help each other get to the end of November 22nd proud, stuffed to the gills with great food and thankful that the meal went smoothly. Are you game? Are you ready to share your mishaps (embarrassing or even disastrous), lessons learned and lessons you still need to learn? Great, let’s go!

For all that soul-bearing, one lucky winner will be rewarded with a $50 gift card to Walmart on November 19. To enter to win, simply share your Thanksgiving mishaps, questions, tips and tricks with by commenting on my “A Mishap Free thanksgiving” blogs. Meanwhile, there’s a very helpful website “Walmart’s Countdown to a Mishap Free Thanksgiving” full of recipes and tips at. Check back with the website frequently to see new content that will help you make it through to turkey day. I know I’ll be visiting often because although I have figured out a lot of things over the years, I still have plenty to learn.

– Courtney

GIVEAWAY: One (1) That’s IT Mommy reader will receive a $50 Walmart gift card. This giveaway is open to US residents only (18+). Ends 11/19/12 midnight EST.

* We did not receive monetary compensation for this review. Courtney received a gift card from Walmart free of charge to facilitate this review. Giveaway item will be provided by sponsor. Sponsor has the right to refuse filling prize for duplicate winners from other blogs. This will in no way sway our opinion of the product or service. The review is in our own words and is our opinion. Your results and opinions may differ.

Share Your Thanksgiving mishaps and tips and win with Walmart! #Giveaway (closed) was last modified: January 26th, 2016 by Courtney

My tip is to follow refrigeration instructions. One year my mother didn’t refrigerate some cream puffs she bought for Thanksgiving dessert. My husband and I ate some and were throwing up for 3 straight days!

Biggest mishap is not allowing enough time to cook the turkey and having some hungry folks waiting to eat for a longer than normal time. Remedy- always allow enough time when cooking the turkey, Start EARLY!

One thing I always seem to do each year is forget to buy a certain ingredient or food item. This year I swear I won’t do it again and I will right EVERYTHING down, check over my list twice, and buy everything I need ahead of time.

my first turkey I cooked, was good but my dad was carving an said”sister” I said what Daddy,,he said did you not take the “giblets out” I said huh,no,whats a giblet? an then the whole table laughed,,that bag of stuff was still in the bird,,omg,I bout died,,he said didnt you check,uh noooooooooo,,,I didnt know you were supposed to stick your hand up its hump an get that out,,the bird was okay an it was a source of laughter for many Thanksgivings ,,he always asked if it was empty inside or not,,lol,yes Daddy I stripped him clean,,those were sweet memories,my dad has passed but those memories never will

One Thanksgiving, I sent my husband to the store to buy a ham and he purchased and cooked a cured/salted ham…the kind that’s not meant to cook as a whole, but rather cut in slices in a pan. It was so salty that we threw it in the backyard to the dog. The dog was very happy. My tip…do not send husbands to the grocery store.

My first year of cooking I to forgot to take the giblets out which my husband caught before he took it to the table to carve and I tried making the stuffing in the microwave and it didn’t turn out. My mom then told me in front of everyone ” that is why it is called Stove Top Stuffing”. I’m glad she didn’t see the giblets. I was so stressed that I didn’t make another Thanksgiving meal for everyone for a couple of years.

Forgetting to buy the sage seasoning because I thought I had some! Make a list of everything you are going to need whether you *think you have it or not and double check you do have it before going shopping!

Our first year in our new house we wanted that big Rockwell-style Thanksgiving with family and friends. A friend suggested a potluck Thanksgiving but I had convinced myself that was cheating somehow and that I had to cook for 20. After mentioning it to a couple guests though they loved the idea! So we made the turkey and stuffing and each guest brought a personal favorite dish. There were two couples from overseas celebrating their first U.S. Thanksgiving and brought wonderful favorites from their home countries (homemade apple strudel, hello!). So much fun! And each of the dishes was the perfect conversation starter. That year I learned that I don’t have to do it all myself to earn my good hostess badge.

Luckily I haven’t had any mishaps myself for Thanksgiving. One of my worst cooking mishaps was when I was a teen and cooked a pie and when I took it out of the oven the top started on fire. My brother grabbed the fire extinguisher and doused my whole pie (I had even pitted the cherries by hand!). Needless to say, I learned that instead of screaming and have your brother rush to the rescue I should have just covered it with a pan lid! lol Thanks for the giveaway!

Well we end of losing our peanut oil that we were frying the turkey with and we learned to always have extra peanut oil on hand just in case of mistakes and we ended up using a combo of peanut and vegetable oil

My first time cooking a Turkey for Thanksgiving I didn’t take it out in time for it to defrost for dinner…it was so embarrassing!! I ended up having to make Lasagna and Baked Macaroni for dinner, thank goodness my family is not critical!!

Our worst mishap is never having stuff done on time. To fix that problem, I do as much preparation that I possibly can the night before and I also have everything (cans, bowls, etc) set out for the next day!

One year my husband’s brother asked us to Thanksgiving at his house 4 hours away. We asked what to bring and were told desserts. We got there the night before and my SIL has decided she is too sick to cook and the 19lb turkey is still in the freezer. I stayed up all night getting that turkey defrosted because my BIL decided food was to be served at noon. Since I was now in charge of cooking the meal for 6 adults and 3 children, I took stock of what I had available. The two of them had decided a small can of green beans, a small box of Stove Top, a box of instant mashed potatoes, and a pack of rolls was enough for nine. After everyone ate this horrible meal (turkey never did completely thaw), my BIL decreed that no one could eat desserts (that I had brought) because they were saving them for later. He also expected me to clean up after everyone else. That didn’t happen and we have never set foot in his house again.

When I was younger, I cooked a turkey and left the gizzards inside, not knowing they were even in there.
I find my best tip is to make some items the day before and to keep a planned list.
Thanks so much.

Several years ago, I had a house full of relatives over for Thanksgiving dinner. Our 21 lb. turkey was only half way through cooking when we ran out of propane gas. This never happened before and I was so upset. My mother-in-law said we should gather up all the food and take everyone over to her house which luckily is just down the road.

[…] By Courtney on November 15, 2012 Wow, am I ever thankful for all of the great responses to my first blog about how to avoid Thanksgiving mishaps! They are funny, touching and really helpful. We can all benefit from each other’s mistakes and […]

My Thanksgiving mishap was the first year I cooked for everyone, I made Chestnut Stuffing, not knowing (to be fair neither did my Mom) that my Mom was allergic to Chestnuts. The remedy? A trip to the ER for Mom, not the best way to spend Tahnksgiving

Worst Mishap was allowing my aunt Patty to host Thanksgiving day dinner last year: She ordered a ready made meal from a local grocery store- absolutely HORRIBLE, dry overcooked turkey, stuffing awful….even the pumpkin pie tasted strange.
Never again. I have insisted on hosting the family Thanksgiving dinners from now on.

We are hosting our first thanksgiving. (And having 20 or so people!) We are cooking two turkeys, a few sides and asking everyone to bring a dish with them. This way we definitely will have enough food!

I once put the butter for a pecan pie in the microwave to soften. The next day I couldn’t figure out why the pie didn’t turn out very good. Not until my son went to reheat something and asked me why there was a dish of butter sitting in the microwave. That’s the last time I made that mistake.

The first year and only year that I cooked a turkey, I left everything inside. I didn’t know you were suppose to clean it out. My advise would be if you don’t know what you’re doing don’t assume… do your research.

I bought a frozen turkey the night before Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it was defrosted in time for me to cook it. We wound up having to eat a frozen pizza for our dinner. Luckily it was just me, hubby and a 1 year old.

I was making a sweet potato casserole to take to my in-laws, where we always ate Thanksgiving dinner. We were already running late. My husband picked up the casserole dish and the lid flew off and crashed to the floor, with glass pieces everywhere. We had to further delay our arrival and clean up all of that glass.

Thanks for the giveaway… on more than one occasion when we had Thanksgiving Dinner at my sister-in-laws, the Turkey was dropped on the kitchen floor before it arrived at the dinner table; we purchased her heat proof cooking gloves as a Xmas gift.

[…] end of Thanksgiving Mishaps By Courtney on November 21, 2012 Well, my dear partners in Thanksgivings-gone-wrong, we’ve come to the close of our blog series on the Countdown to a Mishap-Free Thanksgiving […]